Will Joël Giraud dare to relaunch the debate on the legalization of cannabis?

• The new Secretary of State for Rurality Joël Giraud said he was in favor of the decriminalization of cannabis in several forums.
• He prefers not to broach the subject when he has just been appointed to a government hostile to this idea.
• The elected officials who rubbed shoulders with him in the Southern Alps, however, believe that he could change their minds Jean Castex and Emmanuel Macron.

He wore t-shirts to the National Assembly. Will he land in the Council of Ministers with a " legalize it  " t-shirt  ? Joël Giraud describes himself as a “T-Rex of the Palais Bourbon”. According to Daniel Spagnou, mayor of Sisteron, he is in fact “a moderate, a man of consensus. "For him, it is even" the ideal minister. "

Despite their political differences, Daniel Spagnou, the Republican of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Joël Giraud, the left-wing radical of the Hautes-Alpes have always got along well. "He prevented us from closing the night train between Paris and Briançon," applauds Daniel Spagnou, who believes that without this decision, the Ecrins National Park would be "closed for a long time. "

"Not the moment" to talk about it

What about cannabis, what does he think of it? The new Secretary of State for Rurality did not have time to give his position to 20 Minutes . "It is not at all the moment", analyzes a relative. Joël Giraud co-signed a column in L'Obs , last June 18, in which we can read that it is necessary "very quickly to decriminalize the use of cannabis" to "allow a real public debate. "

More than 70 personalities, including the former heads of the European list Yannick Jadot and Raphaël Glucksmann, call on the public authorities "to act quickly" to legalize cannabis in the name of "pragmatism", in a column published today in the Obs https://t.co/kd9TFlvzr6 #AFP pic.twitter.com/JqCkohknci

The signatories of this forum, including MPs Sylvia Pinel, Caroline Janvier, François-Michel Lambert and Jean-Luc Bennahmias, make three arguments:

• The economic argument: “Legalization would create between 30,000 and 80,000 jobs, especially in the agricultural sector. "
• The security argument: “The cost of repression is estimated between 550 and 700 million euros per year. "
• The health argument: “To legalize is to control the composition of the product. "

According to Joël Giraud's deputy, it is “quite possible” that Joël Giraud will tackle the subject in the Council of Ministers. Claire Bouchet develops:

He's courageous. He is not afraid to start debates. He doesn't win them all, but he often has a good spread and prepares them well, so it sometimes works. "

The fact of glory of the 60-year-old deputy, former rapporteur of the budget to the Assembly? Obtaining compensation for the abolition of wealth tax in September 2017. Joël Giraud obtained an increase in taxes on luxury goods. "On certain subjects, it's hard to make him change his mind," said Amélie de Montchalin, Secretary of State for European Affairs.

Very happy to have been appointed co-rapporteur with Christine PIRES BEAUNE of the mission on the follow-up of the work carried out by the Local Finance Committee in 2020 on the reform of the criteria for the allocation of grants to communities, one of my favorite subjects.

But cannabis is not a common subject. "I would not have answered you if I had known that you would ask me questions about it", annoyed Daniel Spagnou, while considering that Joël Giraud "could very well ask the question in the Council of Ministers. But not right away, because he will take the time to prepare his debate.

"A source of diversification for agricultural production"

"Therapeutic cannabis can be a source of diversification for agricultural production," blows the unlabeled mayor of Tallard Jean-Michel Arnaud. "But that's not what we expect," resumes the city councilor immediately. We need to redefine the fiscal pact between rural areas and metropolitan areas. Today, each time an urban area receives one euro of global operating allocation, a rural area receives only 50 cents. "

It is quite obvious that the issue of cannabis is not on Joël Giraud's roadmap. And Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Saturday "the extension of the powers of the municipal police" and the generalization of the "lump sum of drug offenses": in short, the payment of a simple fine in the event of control of a cannabis user.

"The government wants to contravene the use to declutter the courts", analyzes Martin Victor, activist in favor of the legalization of cannabis. The project manager at the 31/32 bus in Marseille is convinced that Joël Giraud “is not the providential man to relaunch the debate. It is open today. It is recurring. But is it fruitful? No. "

Politics

Fight against narcotics, municipal police competences… Jean Castex's announcements on security

• Cannabis legalization
• Marseilles
• Jean Castex
• Cannabis
• Rurality